Technical Field
The system of the present application relates in general to the field of drive system health monitoring, and relates specifically to the drive systems rotational oscillations and torsional oscillations and steady windup and detection of mechanical anomalies indicated by these changes in rotational oscillations and torsional oscillations and steady windup of a series of drive shafts.
Description of Related Art
Typically, in rotorcrafts parts are replaced based upon the number of hours flown. Therefore, parts are inspected and replaced regularly to insure the aircraft is flightworthy. Instrumentation systems, based upon accelerometers, provide fault detection of drive trains. As the aircraft parts fail, harmonic analysis of the vibratory patterns changes and indicates a failing part. However, accelerometers must be spread out along the length of the drive train as vibrations resulting from faulty parts are generally localized to the faulty part. Accelerometers must be regularly calibrated to verify their output requiring additional maintenance.
Hence, there is a need for a method and apparatus for fault detection in a tail rotor drive shaft without accelerometers.
While the system of the present application is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the system to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present application as defined by the appended claims.